well this sure was an exciting weekend. thursday night i went to see mstrkrft at the crofoot, one of my favorite venues (if not for the bouncer mentioned below). the opener was grand dad crunk who was pretty excellent. my favorite was when he dropped “little bit” by lykke li over a crazy beat. i dont know who he is, but apparently he is zozzys brother. and apparently everyone in the metro detroit area except myself knows who zozzy is. mstrkrft was rockin as well. they drank a lot on stage and took several pulls of mr. beam. i dont know what else to say other than that. the crofoot is really the best place to take pictures because the stage sort of juts out a little, and the balcony goes all the way to the back of the stage, so you can take some excellent shots where you essentially get the perspective of the performers and get the entire crowd in the shot as well. but only if you make it out alive with your pictures.
things were going fine until just before we left, i decided to hit up the balcony for a few more shots. i got some great ones and just as i took the last shot, the bouncer on the stage shined up his flashlight and told me to stop taking pics, which i did. figured id just take off and go on my way. but as i got to the bottom of the stairs from the balcony, i realized the bouncer had made his way through the entire crowd and was waiting for me at the bottom of the steps, at which point he demanded that i “delete every f***ing picture of that f***ing camera right now”. real nicelike, because clearly i was being raucous and unruly [aside: is it inherent for all bouncers to be on power trips?]. so i did, and was pissed, and left, because i had some crazy good pics. ive since replayed the scenario hundreds of times in my head. had i known he would be waiting for me i would have removed the memory card or took a different exit out of the place (i think theres a back staircase as well). or had i not been caught so off guard, i would have argued with him until he kicked me out, since i was leaving anyway. but, we live and we learn, and that is why i will be trying to get a photo pass to every show from now on, including this past weekends bassnectar show that you will see and hear about later this week (check out the facebook page for a sneak peek at some of the pics. 90% of them are average but i think about 10% are good).
on to the latest in my ever continuing series of new songs that are now old news. this time, its from one of my favorite bands that only has one album out, yeasayer. ive loved their “all hour cymbals” album for quite some time now, but it wasnt until i saw them at bonnaroo (pictured above) this summer that i really “got it” and understood what a weird and unique group they were. i saw them at pitchfork later in the summer which was also great, but theres just something about being in one of those big bonnaroo tents in the middle of the night that adds to the eerieness and excitement of their performances.
i was pretty effin pumped to learn that a new album “odd blood” would be released in 2009, and that they were releasing a free single that very day to whet our appetites. the song is called “ambling alp” and its got just about everything that i love about yeasayer but with a much happier sound than what i think of when i think about “all hour cymbals” (although thats definitely got its happy moments as well). and most of all, its got that unique je ne sais quoi that i seem to find so often with yeasayer, all over a pretty cool tribal sounding beat. definitely among my most anticipated releases of 2010.
